bbc.co.uk review: Digital plans face closer scrutiny from BBC Trust

Individual BBC online services including sport and news will have to prove they offer "distinctive" content or face greater scrutiny, the BBC Trust will say today when it unveils the results of its first review of bbc.co.uk.

BBC Trust member Patricia Hodgson revealed on the Radio 4 Today programme that, following the review, three new "protections" would be introduced to the service licence governing the remit of bbc.co.uk.

She said the new measures would more tightly control the corporation's burgeoning digital ambitions.

"The first [protection] is that the service licence, which encapsulates what the site will do [and] gives security to the audience - but of course to competitors [as well] - will now have an annex about what can be expected from each part of the service: news, sport, local, regions and so on with a budget," said Hodgson. "That will be a way of holding each part of the service to account."

Hodgson, who will officially unveil the full details of the trust's bbc.co.uk review and new service licence later today, added that a "really important" second protection would be specific remits for different elements of its online offering.

She said this measure would help to allay commercial rivals' fears about the corporation's digital ambitions

"Each part of the service, not just the service overall, will need to be distinctive - setting itself aside from what you can find elsewhere by a series of criteria," she said.

"And if in particular areas there is any sense that the market could be overwhelmed by the scale of the BBC, then any developments in that market will be looked at with a proper public value test separate from this review, in addition to it, and with the independent regulator assessing market impact. I think competitors will find that very reassuring."

Hodgson did not outline on the Today programme what the third protection measure to be unveiled by the BBC Trust would be.

Emily Bell, the director of digital content at Guardian News & Media - which publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk - also speaking on Today, voiced concerns that the burgeoning digital ambitions of the BBC would mean that these safeguards might not go far enough as commercial competitors battle a potential advertising downturn.

"I think the trust is going to have to keep coming back to this. The safeguards sound fine for now but I don't really see where the growth or innovation is going to come from in the commercial market," Bell said.

"And I fear that [we] are actually going to come out of a recession in maybe four or five years' time with a much stronger BBC and many more commercial competitors having gone out of business."

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